Charlie Hough

Expos rookie Cliff Floyd was mesmerized in his first attempt at hitting the knuckleball. He struck out three times against Charlie Hough and said he hopes he never faces another knuckleballer. "If they had a lot of guys that threw the ball like that guy today, I'd probably have to get a real job," Floyd said.

They streamed in like 36,601 kids on Christmas morning and headed for the toys. Opening Night at Marlins Park quickly morphed into something grander. It was baseball-palooza with South Beach pinache, a smorgasbord for the senses at the coming-out party at the Miami Marlins' funhouse in Little Havana on Wedneday night. The ballpark made a better first impression than the product on the field as the Marlins fell 4-1 to the defending champion St. Louis Cardinals. Marlins ownerJeffrey Loria planned the ballpark as a visual feast, and it was an eye-opener for the packed house and a national audience on ESPN.

Burt Hooton, not Charlie Hough as previously reported, will be the starting pitcher Sunday in the Rangers` home opener against Toronto. Approximately 1,000 tickets remain for the game... The Rangers will play a Japanese team, the Nippon Ham Fighters, Monday at 1 p.m. Admission is free... Catcher Darrell Porter has suffered a bruised finger, but it isn`t believed to be serious.

Here's the one prediction you can make with virtual certainty about the new Marlins new season: It'll be a funhouse of a ride. That's something you haven't been able to guarantee about the Marlins since Charlie Hough threw a 74 mph fastball for a strike in 1993. No one knows exactly how everything will work this year. No one knows, for instance, if top pitcher Josh Johnson will stay healthy or what unknown that lurks in the new stadium. No one knows if they'll make the playoffs or how the home-run sculpture will be greeted.

ARLINGTON, Texas -- Charlie Hough, who pitched 8 innings of no-hit ball in his last start, allowed three hits as Texas extended its home winning streak to 10 games and Oakland`s club-record road losing streak to 13. Hough struck out nine, including three in the ninth, and walked two to raise his record to 6-3. Oakland starter and loser Rick Langford (1-7) scattered nine hits and struck out four in seven innings.

Benito Santiago, who has caught Charlie Hough all season, will not play tonight or in the rest of the Philly series, Lachemann said. Santiago has a bruise on his catching hand. Bob Natal, who was deprived of a home run Sunday by a strong inbound wind, will catch the knuckleballer tonight. "He's done OK when he's caught Charlie on the side," Lachemann said. "Other than that, it'll be the old [Bob) Uecker approach - run it down until it stops."

California rookie Wally Joyner has hit 18 homers; the defending National League champion Cardinals have hit 17. . . No wonder it took Texas 16 innings to beat Minnesota 6-2 Wednesday night -- the Rangers had seven runners thrown out on the basepaths. Charlie Hough, who pitched the first 13 innings for Texas, must have really enjoyed the antics. . . Baltimore reliever Don Aase has 17 saves, a pace of 49 for the year. The major-league record is 45, by Dan Quisenberry in 1983.

He strides across the third-base line, a windbreaker hanging loosely on his broad shoulders. The nub of a cigarette is glowing in his right hand against the deepening night sky, this middle-aged man in beige knit pants revisiting the green fields of his youth. "This is it," Richard Hough said. "Hialeah Municipal Park. Looks a little bit newer, a little better kept. Look at the clay. There`s even better dirt." This is only minutes from his Miami Springs home, the place where most nights he drops a fishing line into the canal outside, but he has not been in this place for at least 25 years, he said.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Sure, Charlie Hough, the Marlins` new pitching ace, could name a player on his new team. That`s all he could name, one. "We just bought some clothes for our son, Aaron, and that young fellow`s sister waited on us," Hough said Tuesday from his home in Southern California. And what young fellow might that be, Charlie? "Barberie, Bret Barberie," Hough said, repeating the name of his second baseman. "His sister thought I was a trainer." A mistake easily made, considering Charlie Hough broke into organized baseball when LBJ was president and Tommy Lasorda was still managing in the Rookie League.

MIAMI GARDENS — In a sport that's rich in tradition, the Florida Marlins don't have much of it. But everything the franchise has built has come through Sun Life Stadium — the only place the Marlins have called home since becoming a Major League team in 1993. On Wednesday, the team bid farewell to the stadium, playing its final game there before taking its two World Series championships and moving to its new ballpark in Little Havana. It was a special day for the Marlins and their fans, as a press conference to announce new manager Ozzie Guillen, and ceremonies to commemorate Sun Life Stadium and the franchise overshadowed Florida's 3-1 loss to the Nationals.

April 5, 1993: Charlie Hough throws the first pitch in Marlins history. The Marlins won their inaugural game over the Dodgers 6-3 in front of 42,334 fans. Oct. 3, 1997: Robb Nen pitches a perfect ninth inning in Game 3 of the NLDS against the Giants, giving the Marlins their first postseason series win. Oct. 26, 1997: Edgar Renteria's walk-off single in the 11th off Charles Nagy brings home Craig Counsell to clinch Game 7 of the World Series over the Indians.

For nearly two full years, Charlie Hough stayed home. He hung around his house in Southern California, took his wife out to dinner, spent time with his two grown kids, played a ton of golf, got his handicap down to the low single digits. Life was great for the former knuckleball pitcher. But every so often, he would be watching a baseball game on television and the urge would hit him. Some young kid would throw a great game and come bouncing off the mound to his waiting teammates, and Hough could feel the hairs stand up on the back of his neck.

Dennis Springer swears he won't get emotional when he takes the mound tonight at Dodger Stadium. Charlie Hough might not make the same guarantee. A decade ago in Vero Beach, it was Hough who first befriended a Class A pitcher who desperately needed something that would prolong his career. Hough gladly shared with Springer the secrets of the knuckleball, welcoming him into the fraternity during spring training at Dodgertown. Hough placed the young pitcher's fingers on the baseball just so and sent him on a journey that has wended through six organizations and far more disappointments than successes.

He watched from his living room as the New York Yankees penned yet another page of baseball lore. Only this time, it was written in crayon, the history being hilarious. Charlie Hough, one of the game's all-time knuckleballers, saw Wade Boggs' scoreless inning Tuesday against Anaheim. He was asked how the Yankees' third baseman pitched. "Better than me," Hough said. "The first thing I thought was, `Why has this guy been wasting his time trying to hit? He could have been winning a lot of ball games.

Coming into spring training, the Marlins made it clear their left-handed reliever's job was incumbent Yorkis Perez's to lose. Many more outings like the one he had Wednesday and he might do that. Perez pitched the seventh inning of Wednesday's 6-2 loss to the Dodgers and allowed three runs on five hits, including a two-run home run by Billy Ashley. "Yorkis did not have a good day," manager Rene Lachemann said. "But he's pitched well the other times out this spring." In his previous two appearances, Perez pitched two hitless innings, striking out two with no walks.

Pete Incaviglia, the bearded basher for the Philadelphia Phillies, becomes the answer to a trivia question, and mighty glad of it: Who was the last batter to make an out against Charlie Hough before the 46-yearold Marlins pitcher finally became unhinged at the right hip? Incaviglia struck out Tuesday night, the only Phillies batter to make an out in a five-run uprising that forced Hough's exit after just one-third of an inning. "I told Charlie, `Anybody else and I might have been ticked off, but not with you,'" Incaviglia said.

Tommy Lasorda put his arm around Aaron Hough Monday and smiled a smile that looked as wide as the outfield at Joe Robbie Stadium. "I remember when you were first born, I used to hold you in my arms," Lasorda told Aaron. "In fact, when your father first started playing for me, he wasn`t much older than you. How old are you?" Aaron Hough said 14. "Fourteen...," said Lasorda, his voice trailing off as he cast his mind back; way back before Aaron was born, before his father, Charlie Hough, knew how to throw a knuckleball, before the Lasordas and Houghs lived 15-minutes apart, before they became like a family.

It is Rene Lachemann's favorite Marlins memory, and we suspect it's yours, too. Inaugural Day 1993, when a middle-aged native son named Charlie Hough made a baseball dance and South Florida sing at the arrival of Major League Baseball in our midst. Tonight, Hough returns to the mound at Joe Robbie Stadium, not to say hello, but so South Florida can say goodbye. It's Charlie Hough Appreciation Night at the ballpark, a tribute to the 47-year-old graduate of Hialeah High (Class of '66) who was forced to retire last summer because of a degenerative hip that last winter required an artificial replacement.

Charlie Hough, who gave the Marlins two good years and a win in their inaugural game, will have his day. The Marlins plan to honor the 47-year-old retired knuckleballer in ceremonies prior to their Aug. 29 game against the Chicago Cubs in Joe Robbie Stadium. Hough was a pregame visitor here Thursday, and while Marlins manager Rene Lachemann was happy to see him, he had no qualms about asking Hough to leave the clubhouse to conduct a pregame meeting with his club. "I've been kicked out of better places than this," cracked Hough, who was accompanied by his son, Aaron.